Ben Gibbon says Worcestershire will be looking to strike early and polish off the Durham first innings as quickly as possible when the LV=Insurance County Championship match at the Seat Unique Riverside resumes on Friday morning.
Gibbon was the pick of the Worcestershire attack and finished with 4-75 from 22 overs in a Durham total of 363-7.
The left armer bowled a series of impressive and lengthy spells and struck twice in an over with the second new ball.
His scalps included Durham centurion David Bedingham.
Gibbon said: “A good day’s county cricket. It was gritty, a bit of a grind for our seven wickets, but we’ll come again tomorrow and hopefully get the last three quickly.
“Our plan was to build pressure by bowling a few dots and maidens and I think we did that through the middle period but there were times when they were on top, and we were on top.
“It was nipping about early doors and then died down during the middle period of the day and then swung a bit with the new ball. When we put it in the right areas it did a little bit for us.
“The two at the end (Ben Raine and Paul Coughlin) played pretty well, rotated the strike well, and we’ve got to come back tomorrow and start well.
“David Bedingham is obviously a good player and he played a very good knock but I was glad to be the one to get him out.”
Gibbon had stated his determination at the beginning of the campaign to bowl as consistently in his opening spell as he does when returning to the attack and that remains a goal of his.
He said: “I do enjoy bowling long spells. I spoke at the start of the season about working on my consistency at the start of my spell rather than the second half of my spell, which is probably where I’m at now and that’s how I bowled today.
“My best stuff was in the second half of my spell. If I can turn that around this season, it should be good.
“Coming from National Counties cricket, you probably get a bit of leeway during the first half of your spell whereas in professional cricket the batters are a lot better so the margin for error is not big in the first half of my spell.”
